Teatro Vivo proudly presents Real Women Have Curves, a bilingual comedy by renowned playwright and screenwriter Josefina López, presented at the Emma S. Barrientos-Mexican American Cultural Center, directed by Claudia M. Chávez.

While they work in a tiny sewing factory, a group of women talk about their husbands and lovers, their children, and their dreams for the future. Ana, the youngest among them, just graduated from high school and dreams of going off to college. Although she needs the money, Ana doesn’t like working at the factory and has little respect for her coworkers, who make fun of her. But she keeps going to work and slowly gains an understanding and appreciation of the work and the women. With an all-star cast including Martinique Duchene-Phillips, Gina Marie Hinojosa, Eva McQuade, Ana Laura de Santiago, and Minerva Villa, this hilarious and touching story celebrates real women, their power, and the incredible bond that happens when women work together.

August 3-19, 2018
Emma S. Barrientos – Mexican American Cultural Center
600 River St, Austin, TX 78701

Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm
Sundays at 2pm

ASL Interpreted performance 
Sunday, August 19, 2:00 PM

Stage management by Magaly Olavarria
Set Design by Tomas Salas and Gerardo de la Cruz
Lighting Design by Patrick Anthony
Costume Design by Melissa Swartz
Sound Design by Fabian Duran
Graphic Design by Paul Del Bosque

About Josefina López:

Born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico in 1969, Josefina Lopez was five years old when she and her family migrated to the United States and settled in the East Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights. Josefina is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago,  has an MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA’s School of Film & Television, and has a Diplome de Cuisine from Le Cordon Bleu, Paris. Josefina is the recipient of numerous awards, including a formal recognition from U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer’s 7^th Annual “Women Making History in Hollywood” in1998; and a Screenwriting Fellowship from the California Arts Council in 2001.  She and Real Women Have Curves screenplay co-author George LaVoo won the HUMANITIES PRIZE for Screenwriting in 2002, The Gabriel Garcia Marquez Award from L.A. Mayor in 2003, and the Artist-in-Residency grant from the NEA/TCG for 2007.  Josefina is presently developing the musical version of Real Women Have Curves for Broadway. Josefina is the Founding Artistic Director of CASA 0101 Theater in Boyle Heights which is celebrating it’s 15th anniversary. For more information please go casa0101.org.

A play for the whole familia, inspired by true events.

Teatro Vivo presents Sangre de un Ángel
by Roxanne Schroeder-Arce
Directed by Si Mon’ Emmett

Teatro Vivo proudly presents Sangre de un Ángel  at the Oswaldo A.B. Cantu Panamerican Recreation Center. Ángel is a rebellious teenaged boy. Despite the efforts of his loving and supportive family, Ángel seeks the approval of his troubled friends and their crew. He is encouraged back to school by an auto-mechanics teacher who gives him the opportunity to rebuild a classic 1957 Chevy. Eventually, Ángel begins to open up to his family and a hopeful future, but trouble follows him home when angry young men come looking for him.

Sangre de un Ángel is inspired by the true story of Adam L. Chapa Sr., who was shot in his driveway by a teen gang member in East Austin on March 25, 1998.

“This play is especially important for young adults,” says Emmett, who is also a cousin of Adam Chapa. “Teenagers, teenagers of color most importantly, don’t often see themselves represented in professional theater in a way where we can see the multiple elements of their lives influencing their decisions. Their stories are important.” Sangre de un Angel is being presented to the public for free.

June 1 at 8 PM, June 2 at 4 PM and 8 PM, June 3 at 8 PM

Oawaldo A.B. Cantu Panamerican Recreation Center
2100 E. 3^rd St, Austin, TX 78702

Teatro Vivo is a proud member of the Latino Arts Residency Program at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center. This project is sponsored in part by the Texas Commission on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and the University of Texas Division on Diversity and Community Engagement.

Playwrights Augusto Federico Amador, Victor I. Cazares, Ramon Esquivel, and Dania Ramos Showcase Diverse Voices

Teatro Vivo is excited to announce the playwrights for the the 8th annual Austin Latino New Play Festival. The festival will be presented in collaboration with ScriptWorks, April 19-21, 2018 at the Emma S. Barrientos – Mexican American Cultural Center.

The ALNPF unites playwrights and audience members in conversation surrounding new works of Latino theatre. After each performance, the playwright participates in a talkback session with the audience. The ALNPF features four new plays by playwrights from throughout the U.S., including a play for young audiences. The four plays explore cross-cultural themes and dilemmas that surprise, challenge, engage, and push the dramatic envelope.

With support from the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, the playwrights will join us in Austin to workshop and further develop their work.

Atacama by Augusto Federico Amador
Directed by Mary Alice Carnes

Thirty years after the dirty war waged by the General Pinochet regime on the Chilean people. Two strangers search the Atacama Desert for their buried loved ones and discover there are darker truths awaiting them underneath the hard sands of the Atacama.

Augusto Federico Amador was born and raised in the Silicon Valley and is the son of an accomplished Peruvian Jazz composer and an Austrian mother. Mr. Amador has recently been awarded the prestigious Lincoln City Fellowship from Speranza Foundation for playwriting. Atacama placed in 50 Playwright Project’s 2017 list of best unproduced Latino plays, as well as a runner up for the 2017 National Latino Playwriting Award from the Arizona Theater Company. His plays have been finalists or semi-finalists for several awards, including the Eugene O’Neill Conference, Princess Grace Award, Terrence McNally Award, Metlife Foundation National Latino Playwright Award, New Works Labs at Stratford, and the Lee Strasberg Theater, among others.

American (Tele)visions by Victor I. Cazares
Directed by Alexis A. Arredondo

The Canales family just can’t catch a break: The dad gets impaled with the TV antenna, the mom and Stanley the truck driver have run off with half their doublewide mobile home, the brother is dead and is reanimated by his gay Vietnamese lover, and Erica…Erica is a kids’s TV dinner tray with lots of sodium and dreams. You know, just your typical undocumented Mexican family living in the shadow of the first Wal-Mart in the history of the American Universe. Now please someone get them an HBO show. Elevator Pitch: “Estos Somos Nosotros” meets Super Mario NES.

Victor I. Cazares was born twice on paper: in El Paso, Texas and San Lorenzo, Chihuahua, Mexico. His plays have been read, developed, or produced at American Repertory Theatre, Amherst College, Brown University, New York Theatre Workshop, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Red Fern Theatre Company, and the Yale School of Drama. Cazares holds an M.F.A. from Brown University and a B.A. in History of Art from Yale University where he received a Josef Albers Fellowship and a Sudler Grant. He lives, forages, and produces his social media telenovela, El Amor en Tiempos de Trump in Portland, Oregon.

Dulce by Ramon Esquivel (A Play for Young Audiences)
Directed by Khristián Méndez Aguirre

A boy named Memo learns that Abuelita, his beloved grandmother, has died. Unsure of how to feel, Memo decides to find Abuelita’s hidden stash of candy. But his mother Luisa and older sister Ceci are too caught up in their own grief to help, so Memo turns to an unexpected ally in his search for the dulce: Abuelita herself! Memo journeys with Abuelita through her memories as a child in Mexico and a young immigrant in the USA, and he discovers that the true treasure Abuelita left for him is familia. A play for young audiences (ages 8+) and families, Dulce draws on both magical realism and slapstick comedy to tell a story about cultural identity, intergenerational ties, and learning how to say goodbye.

Ramón Esquivel is a playwright based in the Pacific Northwest. He teaches playwriting and theatre education at Central Washington University. In 2017, his play Luna was produced at the University of Texas and toured Austin-area schools. Luna is featured in Palabras del Cielo: An Exploration of Latina/o Theatre for Young Audiences, a play anthology from Dramatic Publishing. The Hero Twins: Blood Race, an original story inspired by Mayan mythology, premieres in April at Appalachian Young People’s Theatre in North Carolina. Above Between Below, a play about bullying, is currently touring middle schools in Washington and Oregon through a partnership between Seattle Children’s Theatre and Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre. Dulce was the first play Ramón ever wrote, though it has never been produced. He is grateful for the opportunity to revisit this deeply personal work, and to share it with young audiences and families in Austin.

Hielo by Dania Ramos
Directed by Carl Gonzales

It is spring 2017 in Cayey, Puerto Rico. When Lucia’s hours at the local superstore are cut back, she decides it’s time to follow her dream of starting a homemade flavored-ice business. She enlists the help of her book-smart teenaged daughter, Alondra, and her resourceful best friend, Yamilet, but things heat up when the neighborhood piragüero feels that his livelihood is threatened. Lucia must consider what’s best for her neighborhood, her daughter, and herself.

Dania Ramos‘s stage plays have been produced or developed by Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre, Luna Stage, Writers Theatre of New Jersey, Speranza Theatre Company, and Repertorio Español. She has been a finalist in the MetLife Nuestras Voces National Playwriting Competition, the recipient of a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Playwriting Fellowship, and placed third in the 2017 Henley Rose Playwright Competition. Dania holds an MA in creative writing from Wilkes University and a BFA in theatre performance from Montclair State University.

This project is in collaboration with ScriptWorks, and is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department, National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, and by the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Southwest Airlines, and the Surdna Foundation through a grant from the NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant Program.